News & Events

For Us

Tiger Watch

Programs

Ticket and Talk – was designed to increase understanding with the students, referencing the tickets they receive. They are not issued tickets when they are contacted in violation of a law if they are under the influence of alcohol, instead they are provided with an appointment. In the appointment, the campus resource officer talks with them about their violations and why they are receiving a ticket, all in a controlled environment. This program is designed to open up the lines of communication between the Colorado College student population and the officers of the Colorado Springs Police Department. This delayed enforcement action gives the student a chance to clear his/her body of alcohol so he/she can fully comprehend the summons. It allows the student to be fully aware of their actions while intoxicated. It also allows both the student and officer to see each other in a different light. Since the implementation of this program, the numbers of tickets have decreased on campus and the students have had positive comments on how they felt about the process.

VW Program - was created as part of the Ticket and Talk program. In this program, when students are contacted for a liquor law violation and they are respectful and compliant, many times they are released with just a verbal warning. They will also be sent a follow up email that talks about their violation and what the punishment is under the Colorado law. They are informed if they have repeat violations they will be cited. The email also asks for their feedback on the interactions between them and the police

Drug Talk - students who are found to be in possession of marijuana, paraphernalia and or displaying signs of being under the influence of marijuana will go through Drug Talk with the campus resource officer. This program allows the officer to examine each individual offense and work with the student to determine what the best sanction (summons, community service, reaches papers, counseling etc.) would be. This allows the students an opportunity to stay out of the court system and to take ownership of their mistakes and take measures to help change their behavior.

Party Patrol - is a program created to ensure that Colorado College students and the surrounding community share and maintain the high quality of life we enjoy here in Colorado Springs. With the number of noise complaints and liquor law violations increasing in the past few years, Party Patrol was created to take a more proactive approach in handling parties and enforcing nuisance violations that affect our quality of life.

The patrols seek out the parties early in the night and officers meet with the host to talk about the night. At that point, officers gather contact information for the Sober Host(s) and also provide the host with their work cell phone number. This allows contacting the host via phone and vice versa if any problems arise.

The officers spend time going over the roles of being a responsible host(s), make sure neighbors have been contacted and go over several liquor laws and nuisance violations that will cause the party to be shut down. The officer also talks about safety concerns for the party and help the host explore ideas and set ups that could help the party run smoother. Officers continue to monitor the party throughout the night to make sure all of the requirements are being met. If they continue to host a responsible party no action will be taken. If there are numerous violations that are not addressed by the host, the party will be shut down and the host could face school and or criminal sanctions.

The final role of this program is the following up with the host(s) a few days after the party. This allows the host (s) to meet with the campus resource officer and talk about what went well and what could be improved upon for their next party. This has worked well and we saw success throughout the last two years. Students who were hosting parties contacted the campus resource officer days before their party and sought out advice about safety concerns and the set-up of their parties.

Sober Host – This program was developed as part of the Party Patrol Program. All Colorado College parties on and off campus should be staffed with a sober host. For the last several years we have provided all students who want to live off campus with off campus living presentations. These presentations cover a number of topics including responsible party hosting and having a sober host at every party. During the 2011-2012 school year, Sober Host became a formal program. We work with all students who want to host a party and encourage them to register their party and provide the name of their sober host to the campus resource officer or Campus Safety. The sober host serves as the contact point for campus safety, police and most importantly their neighbors should there be issues or concerns at the party. This program has been successful in reducing the number of complaints and concerns for the community and CSPD Officers.

CSPD Extra Duty and Patrol Officers conducted Sober Host checks throughout the 2011-2012 school year. The parties that were found not to have a sober host were asked to shut down. We had 100% compliance from all students who were asked to shut their parties down. The students have embraced this program and from December 2011 through May 2012, of all the parties that were checked, less than 1% did not have a sober host.

Tiger Watch: - is a “Hybrid” campus watch group for Colorado College, coordinated though the campus resource officer. Tiger Watch has some basic principles of a traditional neighborhood watch and also some aspects that are unique to the program. Tiger Watch volunteers are required to attend a 1 hour safety training before being recognized as an official volunteer. Tiger Watch will also offer additional trainings as the program gains more volunteers.

In April 2012 we launched a Tiger Watch Pilot. The pilot program was launched in the three main residential halls. On April 4th we had our first Tiger Watch information meeting. We had approximately 90% of the students who attended the first meeting sign up to be official volunteers. The campus resource officer was invited by several students to their sorority (Beta Omega chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta at Colorado College) where we presented the TIGER WATCH program to approximate 50 students. We had positive feedback from the students about the program.

Tiger Watch is now in all residence halls on campus and 1 administrative building.